Merkle Trees are a fundamental component of blockchains that underpin their functionality. They allow for efficient and secure verification of large data structures, and in the case of blockchains, potentially boundless data sets.
The implementation of Merkle trees in blockchains has multiple effects. It allows them to scale while also providing the hash-based architecture for them to maintain data integrity and a trivial way to verify the integrity of data.
Cryptographic hash functions are the underlying technology that allow for Merkle trees to work, so first, it is important to understand what cryptographic hash functions are.
Quick Verdict: Merkle trees are data structures composed of cryptographic hashes that allow efficient integrity verification and mapping of large data sets, making them an integral component of systems like blockchains and distributed version control.
Quick Facts
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